Sexual offending & abuse in Church settings

We aim to provide a safe space for people with some involvement in church safeguarding to reflect together, within a structure provided by TDI, on their work and its various complications.  

 Topics touched on:

• What do we know about the causes of sexual offending?
• How does the law treat sexual offending?
• Attrition - what proportion of sexual offences reaches the courts? What are the implications?
• How do sex offenders operate - the Finkelhor model
• What do we mean by grooming, and what might that look like in church settings?
• How sex offenders are managed in the community
• Looking beyond media stereotypes of sex offenders, spotting and responding to risk
• The Gibb Review: balancing forgiveness with protecting the vulnerable
• The importance of support for both victims/survivors and ‘respondents’ accused or suspected
• Other forms of abuse, current research and thinking on domestic abuse - beyond the Duluth Model?
• Testing the effectiveness of our policies and procedures

Please note that we also offer more in-depth training of relevance to people working in church settings which can be tailored to the needs and interests of different groups and levels of expertise and run over one or two days.  Contact us if you are interested in booking a course for your group or have a particular topic you would like us to focus on.